The Finance Ministe, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, says Ghana’s New Economy will confront the human cost of unemployment and address the barriers preventing young people, farmers and small businesses from building sustainable livelihoods.
He said the country could no longer accept a situation in which education failed to lead to employment, talent remained unsupported and productive efforts yielded little opportunity.
“Unemployment is personal. It is the graduate who has finished school but cannot find work. It is the young person with talent but no capital,” he said.
Dr Forson made the remarks last Friday in an engagement with students and faculty of the University of Development Studies at its Nyankpala Campus in the Tolon District in the Northern Region.
It is part of a series of engagements the Finance Minister is embarking on with key segments of the economy ahead of the presentation of the 2027 Budget and Economic Policy of the government.
The Finance Minister’s message places jobs and economic opportunity at the centre of the New Economy, drawing attention to the everyday struggles behind unemployment figures.
Dr Forson highlighted the plight of farmers who produceD without reliable markets and small business owners whose ambitions to expand are frustrated by the cost of credit.
He underscored the need to address issues of the search for work and the obstacles facing those capable of creating it.
For families, he said, the burden was particularly painful after years of sacrifice to finance a child’s education, only to watch them stay at home without any work.
“It is the family that sacrifices to educate a child, only to watch that child sit at home,” he recounted.
The Finance Minister rejected the idea that such experiences should become an accepted feature of national life.
“No serious nation can accept this as normal.
The New Economy says Ghana must no longer accept it,” Dr Forson stated.
